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Bruce Wayne (Earth-Two)
, Scarecrow, and Catwoman who became the most influential of his adversaries and later Wayne's wife. But one of his more effective "normal" villains was an crime boss named "Boss" Zucco who caused the death of the Flying Graysons, which resulted in Wayne taking in Richard Grayson who became Batman's junior partner Robin. As a recognized effective crime-fighter, Batman was recruited by the United States federal government as part of a covert strike force against Nazi operations in Europe that ultimately defeated an assassination attempt on the life of President Franklin Roosevelt. At the suggestion of Superman, he and Batman along with these other costumed heroes formed the Justice Society of America. Due to other commitments, Batman declined full membership status, and served only as an honorary member. He did, however, become more active in the wartime supergroup called the All-Star Squadron. Despite being a member of the All Star Squadron, Batman mostly remained focused in protecting Gotham City though he would occasionally take part in several European cases such as with the Unknown Soldier and others.''The Brave and the Bold'' #146 Batman continued to remain active after World War II and the public disbanding of the Justice Society due to the unwillingness of costumed heroes to reveal their secret identities demanded by the Federal Government investigative committee. In the early to mid 1950s, Wayne confronted the Scarecrow in a case that caused Wayne to seek out the help of his one time foe Selina Kyle, the Catwoman. Upon a promise of early parole for her, Kyle aided Batman. During the course of this case, the two finally acknowledged their true feelings for each other and Wayne revealed his true identity to her.''The Brave and the Bold'' #197 When Selina Kyle was finally released from prison, Bruce Wayne accepted her. The two wed soon thereafter. Selina gave birth to Wayne's daughter, Helena. Deciding not to put his daughter in a similar situation as he underwent in his youth, Wayne retired from the Batman role. But desiring to remain active in some way as crime fighter, Wayne ran for and attained the position of Police Commission of Gotham City upon the retirement of his long time friend Jim Gordon. After a period of inactivity a former henchman of the Catwoman's, Silky Cernak, appeared and claimed to have proof that Catwoman had committed a murder in the 1950s. Silky threatened to expose this evidence to the police and destroy Selina's life unless she helped him commit one last crime as Catwoman. Fearing the destruction of Wayne's position and her daughter's safety, Selina acquiesced in a plot to arrest him. Wayne resumed the Batman identity to stop her unaware of Selina's plan. Selina was shot by Silky in her attempts to arrest him. Selina died in Wayne's arms who was revealed to the public to have been the original Batman. Wayne decided to permanently retire from the role and Cernak would be later stopped by Helena Wayne who became the Huntress ''DC Super-Stars'' #17. Wayne would only return to the role one last time after learning he was dying of cancer in order to stop Bill Jensen, who had been granted super-powers by the sorcerer Frederic Vaux. Wayne had failed to arrest Jensen, and took a Batman costume from the Gotham Museum and decided to attack Jensen directly as Batman. The two fought until Jensen realized that he could not deter Wayne in his attempt to stop Jensen. Jensen decided to destroy Batman and himself with a mystical blast ''Adventure Comics'' #461-462 which succeeded in killing Wayne. The Earth-Two Doctor Fate erased completely from all people on Earth-Two that Batman and Bruce Wayne were the same. ''Adventure Comics'' #463 Wayne's daughter Helena and Grayson would continue on protecting Gotham City as the Huntress and Robin until they were killed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. in which all references to the Earth-Two Batman was erased from the DC Universe. | Powers = No known superhuman powers. | Abilities = Brilliant athlete and acrobat; master of many forms of hand-to-hand physical combat and Eastern and Western martial arts as well as weaponry; superb reasoning and deductive ability proclaimed his skills as the World's Greatest Detective. Mastery of many advanced forms of disguises and acting. | Strength = From the age of twelve forward, Bruce Wayne exercised extensively and intensively, providing him advanced human strength beyond most athletes though technically not superhuman-extended into the peak human range of strength. | Weaknesses = | Equipment = Various small hand to hand devices usually carried in his utility belts and assembled into his costume directly such as low level armor that gave him some protection against bullets and knives | Transportation = Various devices and other motorized vehicles most notably the Batmobile, batcycles, Batboat, Batplane and others; swinging under own power via grappling hooks and other devices. | Weapons = Various though his most notable offensive are batarangs though he did carry and use a handgun for much of his early career, as well as later used various explosive devices. | Notes = * Although the Batman of Earth-Two was the regular Batman throughout the Golden Age, he appeared specifically as a resident of Earth-Two for the first time in . * Unlike his Earth-One and modern era counterparts, the Earth-Two Bruce Wayne was a regular open pipe smoker for many years as noted he did from before his marriage to Selina to after her death which was attributed to be over twenty years, which some writers and fans state was the source for the character's cancer that was killing him. * Unlike the original Golden Age stories, the Earth-Two Batman was shown to have carried and used a gun after forming his partnership with his Robin whereas the original stories have Batman using a gun in only his earliest adventures and stopped before Robin joins him as a partner in 1940 (shown in Detective Comics #38). * He was briefly succeeded in the role of Batman by his former junior partner, Dick Grayson, after Wayne retired.recounted in . But Grayson felt uncomfortable in the role of Batman and decided not to continue in the role and resumed his original costume identity of Robin with a modified version of his mentor's costume. Grayson later replaced that version of his costume with his better known mostly yellow bodysuit version. * The Earth-Two Batman's spirit recently appeared in the Infinite Crisis events and claimed to now be elsewhere and that his previous existence was now "complicated". It was not specified whether it was the Earth-Two Wayne's spirit or Grayson's spirit who appeared in the JSA 80-82 issues. | Trivia = * The Earth-Two Batman costume was differentiated from the Earth-One Batman by lack of yellow circled chest symbol and pointed utility belt. | DC = | Wikipedia = Batman (Earth-Two) | Recommended = * (1st appearance) * (1st origin story) * (1st solo title) * (1st Robin/partner) * (dies) | Links = * The Golden Age Batman Chronology by Aaron Severson * E-2 Batman Index at Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics }} Category:Humans Category:Golden-Age Characters Category:Earth-Two Characters Category:Deceased Characters Category:Widowed Characters Category:Police Officers Category:Justice Society of America members Category:All-Star Squadron members Category:Batman Family members Category:Independently Wealthy Category:1939 Character Debuts